(Image courtesy of http://bookreviewsandmore.ca/)
Please read today’s passage here: Luke 15:1-32
In today's passage Jesus told three stories. Only the first story is transmitted by the other gospel writers: the final two we know only from Luke. The common denominator, as you can see from my title, was something valuable that was lost, the efforts made by someone to recover it, and the intense joy experienced in its recovery. There may be no great meaning to the sequence of the first two, but it is clear that the third story is told last because the value of a lost son far transcends that of a lost sheep or coin. In all three stories the keenness of the loss is not dimmed by the fact that a large number of others still remain in the owner's possession.
The setting which drew forth these stories is given in v. 1-3: Jesus has welcomed into his fellowship both learned and pious Jews and the "crass" businesslike and despised tax collectors and "sinners". The latter term probably does not have the somewhat generic reference that the word "sinner" has to us today. Instead, it refers to Jews who did not make much effort to conform to the meticulous rituals and purity requirements of the rabbinical scholars. They probably were not always careful to wash their hands before meals, a requirement which was not motivated by sanitation, but by religious ritual. Such "looseness" was viewed by the scrupulously law-abiding Jews as sinful. In some ways, they feared the influence of these "lax" Jews more than that of pure pagans. I cannot say that the way of life of these "sinners" matched that of Jesus, although he too was often criticized for such inconsequential details. One gets the impression from the gospels that, while at times he was more than willing to subordinate such minor matters in the interest of an overriding and much more critical obligation—remember the healings on the Sabbath—he was not one to simply ignore religious obligations just for the sake of his own comfort or convenience. The very fact that the gospels picture him so often in the synagogues shows that he took his religious obligations, such as regular attendance at the synagogues, very seriously indeed.
But the issue here was not that Jesus taught a "lax" style of life. These super-pious critics were offended because he even associated with these people! As Jesus once replied to them, "It isn't the healthy who need a doctor; it is those who are ill." He had come to heal the spirits of men and women, and his healing work took him into the midst of much spiritual sickness.
The three stories, then, were not intended primarily for the tax collectors and sinners (although undoubtedly it told them how much God cared for them), but mainly for these critics who needed to repent of their unmerciful and proud attitude. For Luke says he told it "to them" (v. 3), and he challenged them "Which one of you would not do this?" Furthermore, I cannot believe that Jesus told the stories just to humiliate these critics, for he "fished" for lost people wherever he could. And that meant fishing for Pharisees as well as for tax collectors!
The first story (v. 3-7) is told as a challenge: Just as any of you who had lost one out of a hundred sheep would leave the 99 in the care of a servant and would go looking for the one lost sheep, so God cares greatly about each single lost person and will go to any lengths necessary to bring that person back "home". And when he does, he and the thousands of his angels celebrate in heaven over that one person. They celebrate more over the recovery of the one lost than over the 99 who didn't need to be sought. It was a rhetorical question: one whose answer was obvious. Any one of his critics would go after the lost sheep. Therefore they should understand why Jesus will go to any lengths to reach lost people, and like the angels they too should rejoice when sinners care enough to come dine with Jesus and listen to his words.
The second story also is part of a rhetorical question—a challenging question. "What person wouldn't do what this woman does?" A woman loses one of ten coins she possesses, and she turns the house upside down looking until she finds the lost coin. When she does, she goes to her neighbors and says: "Look! I found the coin I had lost! Come celebrate with me!" And again, Jesus compares the situation to the celebration by God and the angels over the repentance of one lost person.
It has been claimed by scholars who have studied ancient texts that when something is repeated twice or three times, it is the author's way of underlining its extreme importance. Jesus told three stories with exactly the same point. This should tell us how important this lesson was and how badly he wants us to understand this truth. God LOVES his sinful creatures! He will do everything short of overruling their own right to choose in order to win them to himself. He will persuade, he will plead, he will sacrifice, but he will not force.
The third story we have all heard of at one time or another. It is usually called "The Prodigal Son". The word "prodigal" is an archaic word whosemeaning most of us no longer understand. Many people mistakenly think it means "wayward" or "runaway". But its true meaning is "spending" or "wasteful". It was once used in a good sense of "generous". But in describing this younger son it was intended to mean "wasteful". There was once a somewhat wealthy man with two sons. They lived with him (we aren't told if both were single or if the older might have been married), and they would have inherited upon his death the estate, with the larger part going to the older brother according to ancient Near Eastern and biblical law. But the younger brother became tired of waiting for his father to die, and he had no great love of farming or ranching. He wanted his part as a cash settlement now. His father was disappointed, but acceded to his wishes and gave him the cash equivalent of his one third of the properties. What hurt the old man most was not that the boy wanted his share now, but that he did so in order to leave home. To the father this implied that he did not feel loved and had no wish to remain in the family. The younger brother traveled to distant lands and spent his money on high living and loose women. When he found himself without funds, he hired himself out to do the dirtiest and most degrading tasks. Until one day he realized what treasures he had given up by leaving home and he resolved to return to his father, asking only to be treated as one of his father's hired hands, not as a son. He rehearsed the words he would use, emphasizing that he knew he was no longer worthy to be called "your son".
But the father had never given up hope for the return of his younger son, and one has the impression that he kept an eye on the roads each day,hoping to see him. When at last the lost son appeared on the horizon, and his father caught sight of him, he ran and embraced the young man. And before the embarrassed boy could get half of his rehearsed speech out of his mouth his father kissed him and led him into the house. He order his servants to bring the best robe in the house to clothe the boy, and the best calf in the stall to be slaughtered for a celebration banquet.
When the older brother came in from a hard day's work in the fields and heard the music and laughter of the celebration, he asked what it was all about. When they told him it was because his younger brother had returned and what his father had done, the older brother refused to go near the house. He stayed in the fields and scowled. Told of what his older son was doing, the father went to him. And after hearing the older son's complaint, that in spite of his faithful service over the years his father had never even given him a goat kid to broil for his friends, while now that this wasteful son returns from blowing his inheritance on whores, his father treats him like a king.
The father's final words are the "kicker": the point that the story has been leading up to all along, and the lesson that — applied to God and to Jesus — are what Jesus' listeners need most to understand. "Son," he said, "you are with me always, and all that I have will be yours someday. But this is your brother we are talking about! We (both you and I) had lost him, but now he is found again! Should we not be overjoyed?" The father's love for both sons is everywhere manifest. His rebuke of the older is as mild and tender as it could be. He simply cannot believe that the older brother lacks the same deep love for the younger son that he does. And he begs his older son to share the joy of the return.
I can see Jesus standing there, holding his arms out to the Pharisees, as he spoke these last lines, as in the lament over Jerusalem which we studied recently—wanting with all his heart to gather them too to his bosom. But will they let him? Again, Luke is silent about their reaction.
Brothers and sisters, you and I are part of God's "rescue squad", appealing to our friends and neighbors on God's behalf to come home to a Father who loves them dearly and sent his Son to die for them. And we too can rejoice with the angels whenever a single friend is "found" by God.
No comments:
Post a Comment